the longest no-losing streak.

[Warren Kingston]

How long have you gone unbeaten? I have lost one game since returning to chess, competitive games that is. 12 games in all.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

How long have you gone unbeaten? I have lost one game since returning to chess, competitive games that is. 12 games in all.

I think mine is around that figure. I suspect others have much longer unbeaten runs. Tal had some ridiculous figure, holding the two highest records for this feat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Tal

"From July 1972 to April 1973, Tal played a record 86 consecutive games without a loss (47 wins and 39 draws). Between October 23, 1973 and October 16, 1974, he played 95 consecutive games without a loss (46 wins and 49 draws), shattering his previous record. These are the two longest unbeaten streaks in modern chess history."

I don't know if anyone has bothered to work out the longest streak without winning! I suspect most people try and ignore that sort of record, and no-one would be in a hurry to claim it (though some of the 19th century tournament rabbits who played 20+ round tournaments without winning a game might have claim to that record).

[Michael Jones]

I think Capablanca had the longest unbeaten run in terms of time, but didn't play so many games.

If you only count full length games, my best run is 11 - won 8 and drew 2 of my last 10 games of the 2008-09 season, then won my first of 2009-10 and lost the second. If you include all competitive games I can manage 20, since immediately before commencing that run I scored 6/6 in a lightning tournament, then in another at the end of the season I started with 4/4 before losing my last two.

One of my team-mates managed 16 - won his last 2 games in 2005-06 then won 13 and drew 1 in 2006-07. He may have extended that sequence, but he graduated that year and left the club, and I don't know whether he continued to play competitive chess.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I haven't lost since January 2009, but I've only managed to play seventeen games since then (W10 D7 L0) and I think only one person actually outgraded me.

[Sean Hewitt]

Mark Hebden hasn't lost a game in the Leicestershire league since 1977!!

[Eoin Devane]

I had a run of 18 games unbeaten during my first two seasons playing in the Oxfordshire league, after which I lost three of my next four!

At school level I seem to remember I had a remarkable run of 11 straight draws.

[Mike Truran]

Sean, I've never lost a game in the Leicestershire League......

[Warren Kingston]

Sean, I've never lost a game in the Leicestershire League......

Is that a easy league then?

[Sean Hewitt]

Sean, I've never lost a game in the Leicestershire League......

Very droll - but Mark has played every year (I think) since '77. Not sure how many games that is, but it's in the hundreds! I think he was on a run of something like 42 wins until a draw in 2008!

[Mike Truran]

Eoin, I see you didn't mention that two of them were against Witney within a week of each other!

[Eoin Devane]

From the results website I see that my Frank Wood Shield loss to Georgs Vikanis was in fact slightly earlier than I remembered, so the streak was only 15 unbeaten. In my defence, I have been trying to forget that game as I missed an obvious mate-in-two and went on to lose.

As Mike mentions, since that run I've lost 9, of which 4 have been to Witney players. Perhaps I should stop playing against Witney.

Edit: 3 of them against Bicester as well. Another team to cross off my schedule ...

[Warren Kingston]

Sean, I've never lost a game in the Leicestershire League......

Very droll - but Mark has played every year (I think) since '77. Not sure how many games that is, but it's in the hundreds! I think he was on a run of something like 42 wins until a draw in 2008!

That's some record, who, was, is his nearest graded player then?

[Eoin Devane]

Can anyone here match my 11 straight draws? Even more remarkable was the fact that these all came within about two weeks of each other, with 5 at the Millfield International school tournament and then 6 at the BDCL U18 rapidplay just a couple of weeks later.

My results following this run - several draws and losses in the Kent Schools' League and an incredibly poor 0/6 in a local rapidplay - gave me the highly dubious record of not winning a single game for about 11 months.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Can anyone here match my 11 straight draws? Even more remarkable was the fact that these all came within about two weeks of each other, with 5 at the Millfield International school tournament and then 6 at the BDCL U18 rapidplay just a couple of weeks later.

My results following this run - several draws and losses in the Kent Schools' League and an incredibly poor 0/6 in a local rapidplay - gave me the highly dubious record of not winning a single game for about 11 months.

I'd give up chess if I went 11 months without a win.

[Warren Kingston]

Can anyone here match my 11 straight draws? Even more remarkable was the fact that these all came within about two weeks of each other, with 5 at the Millfield International school tournament and then 6 at the BDCL U18 rapidplay just a couple of weeks later.

My results following this run - several draws and losses in the Kent Schools' League and an incredibly poor 0/6 in a local rapidplay - gave me the highly dubious record of not winning a single game for about 11 months.

I'd give up chess if I went 11 months without a win.

Not if you were playing Carlsen, Anand and Topolov in a round robin you wouldn't.